Unlike most of the kids his age, Haeckel was different. When he was just a few months old, he was orphaned. His parents died in an airplane accident. The engine of the airplane they were riding exploded. News reports say that the plane had a malfunction but people speculate that it was sabotaged.Before his parents flew off to j.a.pan, the scientist couple produced a study that could improve the technology of the world by leaps and bounds. They found a stone that can generate power on its own without the need for sunlight, water, air, etc. The stone can supply power to the whole world and supplying would only harness a thousandth of its capacity. This would mean that for whoever holds the mineral, they would surely be rich as there would be no need for fossil fuels nor sunlight and other non-renewable resources.
Due to this finding, many countries and individuals would compete in getting that stone. Some would even do their best so that the mineral would not fall into the hands of anybody. This is where the speculation came from. But young Haeckel wasn"t aware of this. He was just a few months old back then. He only managed to learn about it when he heard the manager at the orphanage talk to someone about it on the phone.
But he never really cared. What"s done is done. Ever since he was growing up, he had a cold personality, many thought this was weird and that he needed love but Ernst never really cared. He preferred to stay with himself, immersing himself on books. Some kids would approach him and invite him to play but he turned them all down.
"Hey kid, you"re gonna need some friends when you grow up." A bald man sat next to him while patting Ernst"s head.
The boy just looked him in the eye and then continued to read his book. This book was actually so advanced for someone who was only 7 years old. The book was about Chemistry. Last month, he had just finished a Biology book and the other month, a Physics book. People at the orphanage were surprised to see him read those kind of books. When they asked Ernst whether he understood what he read or not, he just stared at them.
Due to this, the people thought that he was just looking at the pictures and was not really reading. However, Ernst understood every bit of it and even remembered all of what he read. Sometimes, he even wrote a few theories on theories and try to further the study. If scientists were to look at this notebook, they would be shocked at his theories!
The Theory of Recapitulation also called embryological parallelism, which is said to represent the evolution of an animal"s ancestors was rebuked by him. Instead, he theorized that the formation of an embryo is affected by which organ could support most life to the organism!
Another theory he boldly rebuked was Einstein"s Special Relativity! In this theory, Einstein said that that time moves relative to the observer. An object in motion experiences time dilation, meaning that time moves more slowly when one is moving, than when one is standing still. Therefore, a person moving ages more slowly than a person at rest. However, to Ernst, time is a separate ent.i.ty, unaffected by anything! Likewise, s.p.a.ce is also a separate ent.i.ty such that when Time and s.p.a.ce are mixed together, it results to a different concept just like how Green is produced from combining Blue and Yellow! Although time may seem different to people living in earth and beings light years away from earth, from an omnipotent being, time flows the same for them.
The bald man sighed, stood up, patted the boy"s head more, and then left him. He still sat there, reading his book.
When the bald man left, a young girl approached Ernst. She had doe eyes and her hair was tied up in pigtails. Aside from missing a few teeth and a runny nose, she looked cute for a little kid.
"Hey Ernst, don"t you want to play like just once? Please?" The little girl swayed side to side. Ernst just stared at her, closed the book and placed it down on the table. "This will be the first and the last time so please do your best."
"Yes!" The little girl had a big smile on her face as Ernst accepted her request. For some reason, the mysterious and quiet boy had attracted him since he was unlike any boy in the orphanage -rowdy and boisterous. "Let"s play Hide & Seek!"
This is the first time Ernst had played with any of the kids. Before he was able to read, he played only with himself. When he learned to read, he spent his leisure time reading all the books that he can. By the age of 4, he was already reading books for 8 year old kids. At 5 he was reading books for 12 year old kids. When he was 6, he could already read books meant for High School students. "Okay." Ernst accepted the girl"s request."
"Yay! I would count from 1 to 10 and you will hide alright?" The girl instructed.
"Alright."
"One, Two..."
Ernst went to the place he knew no one knew. He discovered it by accident when he was getting some books in their library. The library at the orphanage was big since it housed not only the orphans but also students who availed the orphanage as an apartment. The library was divided into two parts, one for Math and Science and the other was for Literature. Without a doubt, the hiding place he discovered was in the Math and Science area. There was a small secret door that led to the outside of the orphanage and only small kids can fit. At first, he wondered why there is such a thing but he erased it off his mind since it really didn"t matter.
"Ten!" The girl with a pigtails and runny nose started looking for Ernst. When he was already outside the orphanage he felt dizzy. His chest started to hurt and his heart beat faster. It wasn"t his heart that was hurting but his birth mark. It felt like it was burning and the last thing he saw before he collapsed was the girl staring at him from the window of the library, crying.
He dreamed of a monster. This monster was black in color and it looked like a mix of a tiger and a dinosaur. To be brief, it looked like a dinosaur. It had neon blue stripes on its body and at certain intervals, more stripes would appear. Maybe it was when it was breathing. He found himself inside a ruined jeep and monsters lied everywhere. When he looked beyond the monster, there was a beautiful girl lying on the floor. He remembered his chest was hurting and when he looked down, his chest was stabbed by the dino-like monster. He also noted that he looked big like an adult. Then, he woke up.
It was just a dream but it looked so real. When he woke up, he found himself in the orphanage"s clinic. There was no one there except for the nurse. "Nothing seems to be wrong with you. Maybe because it"s the first time you walked in the sunshine in a long time. We"ve been telling you to run around some time and play with others but you just won"t." The bald man smiled at Ernst and sighed. "Okay run along now." He sat up, stretched and left the clinic.
But he felt lost about the dream that looked so real. However, as a boy who forgets things that aren"t useful, he pushed this dream at the back of his head. Years pa.s.sed as more knowledge had acc.u.mulated within his mind. Ten years later, he became a renowned scientist specializing in Chemistry. He had a tall and lean stature with the height of 5"11 and a physique that boasted of ripped muscles.